On the Guardian Higher Education Network … where are all the women in universities?

Can the higher education sector widen participation without addressing the lack of diversity in its own workforce? Achieving gender parity would be a start, argues Peggy Reynolds of Queen Mary, University of London

Too often women are choosing not to go on with their studies at postgraduate level, says Peggy Reynolds, reader in English at Queen Mary. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

On the Guardian Higher Education Network … where are all the women in universities?

Can the higher education sector widen participation without addressing the lack of diversity in its own workforce? Achieving gender parity would be a start, argues Peggy Reynolds of Queen Mary, University of London

"When I was a young lecturer a knock came at my office door. 'Oh', said the young man as I opened it, 'So sorry – I was looking for Dr Reynolds.' This is a story from the 'olden days' but things have not changed that much. I think of one eminent woman friend whose writing was criticised for 'a streak of vulgarity'. Or the colleague serving on a selection committee where a man expressed surprise at her support for another woman because she was 'so much better looking'.

"Women's under-representation in all spheres of public life was the prompt for last week's British Academy debate at the Culture Capital Exchange's Inside Out Festival: 'Where are all the women?' Speakers included women working in film, business, nursing and the police, as well as two representatives from higher education, traditionally a place where women seem assured of a presence.

"Vicki Bruce, head of the school of psychology at Newcastle University, argued that we still need more role models, more portraits of achieving women on the walls. Meanwhile, Morag Shiach, vice-principal and executive dean at Queen Mary, University of London, wants to see the sector address the lack of women at senior management levels.

"According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, just under 20% of all UK staff who hold the title of professor are women, though women make up nearly 45% of the sector's academic staff. Women in non-academic roles constitute the majority, but few occupy the most senior roles. Something needs to be done – and done soon. Because there is a new problem creeping up on higher education. The women themselves.

"Too often women are choosing not to go on with their studies at postgraduate level or, where they do, not choosing a life in academia at the end of them. Depressingly, it begins at a very young age. Boys at my daughter's primary school regularly tell her that girls 'are not good at' this or that. At undergraduate level, it is hard to maintain the virtues of anonymous assessment with the introduction of virtual learning where everything links back to a name. And though money troubles beset everyone, girls are more often reminded of their 'selfishness' in studying for a PhD.

"Once awarded a PhD, young academics face the prospect of short-term contracts and need to be willing to move jobs. Women find this more challenging than men. But they also worry about the impact of career breaks necessitated by children, or the need to care for elderly relatives. Add in the fact that they are often advised that success is more difficult for women, and you wonder that there are any women academics at all.

"Finally, at the highest levels, the most senior management positions are judged on research output rather than teaching expertise and – for all the above reasons – women are likely to have done more of the latter. The offices of principals and vice-chancellors are governed by long working hours which are by no means family friendly. And so women do not apply.

"What can we do about it? Last year, the Guardian Higher Education Network published a series of answers from top women academics ranging from mentoring to self-promotion. Excellent feminist practice. A new book by Elisabeth J Allan, Women's Status in Higher Education: Equity Matters, recommends more strategies. The single most important thing is that we notice and that we care.

"Of course, we should be thinking about colour, race, experience, class too. If we don't have difference and diversity now in higher education then we won't have it in the future. 'No woman ever produced a Shakespeare' goes the taunt. The proper response is: 'Well, who did then?' We need Shakespeare's mother, his sister and his daughters in our universities too."

• Peggy Reynolds is reader in English at Queen Mary, University of London. The Guardian Higher Education Network – news, views, networking, jobs and professional debate available every day theguardian.com/higher-education-network